PHYSICAL AND MATHEMATICAL SCIENCES. 81

takes possession of the mind. A few, perhaps, are irre-sistibly led on by some loftier aspirations to devote theirattention to what the rest disregard. But in general, evenin the most favourable instances, there are many causesoperating to render the advance towards the real prin-ciples of science extremely slow. The first and fore-most obstacle is the want of perception of the valueand importance of making exact enquiries into nature ;or even of contemplating the material world at all, inany other light than as at best a topic of passing ad-miration, or in general as the source of new physicalenjoyments. This want of a due recognition of theclaims of pure philosophic enquiry, apart from the ex-amination of the natural world with a view to the pur-poses of art or of gain, has been, and still is, the firstgreat impediment in the way of the more general diffusionof a taste for such pursuits, and the more extended culti-vation of them. In fact, so slowly, and so rarely, isthe full recognition of the intrinsic excellence of abstractenquiry brought about, that in tracing the growth ofhuman society in its emergence out of the depravedcondition of savage life towards its just and fair pro-portions, whenever we can find anything like a due es-timation only avowed of the value of the search aftertruth for its own sake, we cannot hesitate to associote itwith the attainment of an uncommonly high point ofreal moral civilisation. Even when a gifted individualmay have opened the way, yet it has usually requiredthe lapse of centuries, and the occurrence of many suchbrilliant examples, before any similar taste could be atall diffused among the generality of mankind.

But again : with the best disposition, the extent andvariety of the objects on all sides soliciting attention willrather distract the contemplation, than favour that con-centration of the powers on the several parts, by whichthe gradual knowledge of the whole can alone be pro-moted.

“ Man,” (observes Professor Playfair,) “could not atfirst perceive from what point he must begin his en-o